Film Festival film #2, 3: War is Over (if you want it)

[bcholmes]

Saw two films today: The U.S. vs John Lennon and Ghosts of Cité Soleil.

The first was a documentary of John Lennon's role as an activist, and how that brought him into conflict with the Nixon administration in particular. New pieces that fell into place for me: the 26th Amendment was certified by Nixon and he was very concerned about what these new, young voters might be thinking about, and the influence Lennon had over these new voters.

There was also a really creepy clip of Nixon talking about the Vietnam war; in one 30-second clip he managed to say both that as the South Vietnamese increase their readiness, the US would decrease its deployment, and that he would not be willing to discuss a timetable for withdrawal.

There were a lot of talking heads (what was G. Gordon Liddy thinking when he agreed to be interviewed?) but really the meat of the film was Lennon engaging in passionate debate about how someone could bring about peace. He made an interesting statement: "You've got to sell and sell until the housewife thinks, 'Oh, there's peace or war. That's the two products.'"

I also had my first brush with celebrities. Michael Moore was sitting right across the aisle from me, and Yoko Ono was just two rows in front of him. It was mildly annoying when the credits started and Yoko's army of barrel-chested bodyguards filled the aisle, obscuring parts of the screen.

I enjoyed the film (I'm a sucker for Lennon), but while I thought it was very motivational, the film made me hungry for something that discussed the form and strategies of government interference with today's peace movements. It's clear from the film that several of Lennon's legal problems were related to his role as an activist; what's the government using, today, to oppress the people it dislikes? What's the successor to cointelpro? And what can we, as average folk who lend our backing to activist messages, do to disrupt and frustrate the new disinformation programmes?

The film didn't have anything to say, there. But I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Ghosts of Cité Soleil was a challenging film. It's a documentary about two gang leaders, brothers named Bily and 2pac (he named himself after the rapper, Tupac Shakur). They're "Chimeres" ("ghosts", in English). Gang members who are allied with Aristide's Fanmi Lavelas government.

Part of what was hard to process in the film was that Bily and 2pac were immersed in violence. Neither of them believed that they would live until old age, and yet they had friends, dreams, family and each other. By 2004, they were divided about their loyalties to Aristide. 2pac believed that Aristide had turned his back on the Chimeres. He directed his energy into music, sometimes critical of the government. Bily wanted to stick with Aristide, even if it meant Bily's death.

After the 2004 Haitian coup, Guy Phillipe was very clear about wanted to disarm and arrest the Chimeres. Suddenly, they spent time trying to stay away from the UN military force who would go door to door in Cité Soleil looking for them. They were two of the five main gang leaders, and they feared that if they caught, they'd probably end up dead.

All of us were in awe about just how much access the film directors had to these men, their gangs and Cité Soleil. The UN once described Cité Soleil as the most dangerous place on Earth, so this film is an amazing accomplishment.

I did end up feeling like the film came of seeming to condemn Aristide. There were several clips of members of the opposition criticizing the Aristide government, and even Guy Phillippe and his rebels. It's easy to see the film and conclude that Aristide was simply a corrupt president. And I think that's a naive reading of the situation. Someone in the audience mentioned that they felt that the film seemed a bit biased toward a right-wing take on the situation, and Wycliff Jean (who did the music for the film) replied that it's easy to argue the politics while safely hanging out in another country; he challenged the man to go to Haiti and record the missing perspective himself. I don't know that I'm entirely happy with that answer.

Of course, the end title cards told us that 2pac had, in fact been killed some time after the documentary was filmed, and that Bily had disappeared and was believed dead.